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Thursday, December 04, 2014

Anaheim, CA -- Jakob Silfverberg
and Corey Perry scored in the shootout as the Anaheim Ducks prolonged
the Philadelphia Flyers' road woes with a 5-4 win on Wednesday night.

The Flyers blew a 3-1 lead and were behind by a 4-3 count as time wound down, but tied it on Wayne Simmonds' second goal of the contest coming with 1.8 seconds remaining in regulation.

Both teams came close to ending the game in an entertaining
five-minute overtime during which the Flyers owned an 8-4 shot
advantage.

Ryan Getzlaf and Patrick Maroon both had a goal and
an assist for the Ducks, who have won two straight and five of
their last seven games. Frederik Andersen made 31 saves before
stopping two of Philadelphia's three shooters in the tiebreaker.

Steve Mason registered 29 saves for Philadelphia, which has lost six in
a row and nine straight on the road. The Flyers also suffered
their ninth consecutive shootout loss and fell to 1-8-2 since a three-game win streak in early November. "I liked the way our team is competing," said Flyers
head coach Craig Berube in typically unenlightening fashion after the game. "The work ethic is there but we have to be
smarter."

Maroon -- yet another in a series of ex-Flyers who seem to bedevil their former franchise at inopportune times -- gave Anaheim a 4-3 lead on a power play
with 5:02 remaining in the third period. The goal snapped an 0-for-19
drought for the Ducks with the man advantage.

The Flyers pulled their goaltender for the final 1:55 of the night and it paid off with a little bit to spare. Simmonds buried
his own rebound from the right post after Andersen turned away shots from Andrew MacDonald
and Scott Laughton to force overtime. It was a reversal of fortune for
the Flyers, who gave up the tie-breaking goal with 11.5 seconds to play
in Tuesday's 2-1 loss at San Jose.

The teams followed up a dull first period that included only eight combined shots with a goal-happy and free-flowing middle stanza. Five goals were scored in a span of 5:29.

Michael Raffl staked Philadelphia to a 1-0 lead at 5:46. He broke up a
pass in the defensive zone, triggering a counter rush that he capped
with a one-timer off a feed from Claude Giroux for his first goal since the day before Halloween.

With the teams
skating 4-on-4, Cam Fowler drew Anaheim even when stepped into
Silfverberg's drop pass below the circles and beat Mason on the blocker side from the top
of the left circle at 8:14.

Simmonds responded 32 seconds late when he caught Anderson too deep in his net and scored to the far post from the right wing, then R.J. Umberger scored a rare power-play goal on a tap-in to make it 3-1 at 10:47.

The up-and-down pace continued, and Getzlaf beat Mason high on the glove side with a wrist shot on a 3-on-1 rush only 28 seconds later.

"We weren't happy with the 3-1 deficit, but we thought we were in
it," said Ducks head coach Bruce Boudreau. "It was a good thing
Getzlaf scored quickly after they made it 3-1 so we didn't get a chance
to get down any further."

Sami Vatanen tied it up when he stuffed in a backhander at the right post with 53.2 seconds remaining in the second period.

Notes: Philadelphia, which ends the California portion of its road trip Saturday afternoon in Los Angeles, is assured of a losing record on the Cali clip for the first time in seven such scheduled runs since all three Golden State teams were in the NHL starting with the 1993-94 season ... With goaltender Jason LaBarbera expected to miss two to three weeks
with a broken bone in his hand, the Ducks signed veteran Ilya
Bryzgalov to a professional tryout on Wednesday ... Anaheim also
announced that defenseman Eric Brewer will be sidelined four to six
weeks with a broken bone in his foot ... Anaheim has won four straight
and seven of the last eight meetings ... The Flyers' four shots in the first period tied a season low first done at Tampa Bay on October 30.